Redland Best Florida LoCal avocado
So I found myself in the Sanford Wal-Mart this afternoon browsing through produce when I discovered a taste of home looking back at me. Avocados! They look like Donnies, but not as big as Farmer Margie grows them, and they’re selling under the Redland Best label. I whipped out my old Razr cell phone and took a couple snaps (apologies for the poor quality, but that’s what I had with me at the time). Googled for Redland Best but I haven’t been able to find anything about them. Does anybody know who they are? And what’s a “lo cal avocado” anyway??
Redland Rambles 
Hmmm…. must be a take-off on Brooks Tropicals’ “SlimCado…
What’s this with “skinny avocados”? Don’t people know that they have the good fat, mono-unsaturated fatty acid, that’s heart healthy? Besides, MUFA is the basis of the Flat Belly Diet that Rodale Press is promoting.
Could it just mean “local” but spelled with a capital “c” (LoCal) to imply something it isn’t? Hmmm. That wouldn’t be the first time that labels have been, oh, misleading?
Misleading only how you define “local.” What’s local to you? The avos are “local” to Redland, but not to Sanford. Is local within 150 miles of Miami (as per Margie’s CSA), or all of Florida (as per the state ag dept.)? Similar discussion came up in conversations before. See my posts on goat milk ice cream, and the roadtrip in June.
Yep. “Local” is one of those terms that can be defined differently by different people. Local, to me, is within 100-150 miles of where I live. (By the way, my comment wasn’t about the term “local”, but, rather, that I think the avocado’s label is inferring that the avocado is Low Calorie (LoCal – not local). 🙂
I don’t know what a low calorie avocado is. Maybe it’s a certain variety, not sure. Maybe it’s just a marketing term for the smaller kinds. Bigger avocados have more calories. 🙂
I’ve seen and even bought these before at Publix. I didn’t think they were very good, fwiw. But somewhere on the label (maybe the back?) it compared these avo’s to “California avocados” aka Haas, which supposedly have more calories per ounce due to higher fat content I guess. Trying to ride the health-consciousness curve to the very tail end.
Avocados got a bad rap in the past for being “fattening.” Now Prevention magazine’s Flat Belly Diet pushes MUFAs (mono unsaturated fatty acids) which are found in avo’s, oils, nuts and seeds, olives, and chocolate. “Eating one serving of any of these foods at every meal will help reduce your accumulation of dangerous belly fat.” Interesting.
http://www.prevention.com/flatbellydiet/articles/5flatbellyfoods.shtml
Brooks Tropical started a “Slimcado” marketing campaign some years back. This was an attempt to compete nationally against the California market – mostly Haas, strengthened by an advertising budget available to the California growers through the California Avocado Marketing Order. Florida has a Marketing Order too, but it does not include a marketing component, just a quality control component, so the Florida avocado industry doesn’t get the extra competitive boost that the California industry has. Brooks analyzed a selection of Florida varieties that they grow (or are grown in the groves they manage) for nutritional and fat content. Based on that, they initiated the “Slimcado” campaign – a while ago, as this was before Atkins became popular. I suspect that the “LoCal” designation on the Redland’s Best label is a take-off on Brooks’ – as a way to benefit from the brand recognition (Brooks is a big player here) – and it may just also be a play on ‘local’ – but I bet my money on the caloric interpretation!
Found out from a reliable source that the Redland’s Best brand belongs to Fresh King, the packing company owned by Peter Schnebley. You may know him better from Schnebley Winery.